text model · Ornith · macOS

Can I run Ornith 1.0 9B on Apple M1 (8GB)?

Compatibility verdict VRAM threshold engine

No, not enough memory would not load

No. Ornith 1.0 9B needs ~7.1 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Apple M1 (8GB) only has ~5.5 GB usable.

Needs ~7.1 GB Device usable ~5.5 GB

Needs ~7.1 GB even at Q4_K_M, but only ~5.5 GB is usable.

That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes.

The gap is about 1.6 GB: Ornith 1.0 9B needs roughly 7.1 GB at Q4_K_M and Apple M1 (8GB) leaves only about 5.5 GB usable for a model. The lightest tracked hardware that runs Ornith 1.0 9B is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB) at 12 GB. See Ornith 1.0 9B on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB).

Q4_K_M needed: ~7.1 GB
Usable on device: ~5.5 GB
Device memory: 8 GB

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Which quant fits

Quant ladder vs ~5.5 GB usable

Q2_K

~5.3 GB

Q3_K_M

~5.9 GB

Q4_K_M

~7.1 GB

Q5_K_M

~7.9 GB

Q6_K

~8.9 GB

Q8_0

~11 GB

FP16

~19.5 GB

The line marks Apple M1 (8GB)'s ~5.5 GB budget; rungs past it are too large.

Model Ornith

Parameters: 9B
Q4_K_M size: 5.6 GB
Q8_0 size: 9.5 GB
Context: 256k
Ollama tag: ornith:9b

Full Ornith 1.0 9B requirements →

Device macOS

Memory: 8 GB unified
Usable for weights: ~5.5 GB
Power draw: ~39 W
Best runtime: Ollama (llama.cpp Metal backend)

Best models for Apple M1 (8GB) →

What you can run instead

Run Ornith 1.0 9B on other hardware

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (12GB)Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM)iPhone 17 Pro iPhone Air

FAQ

Can Apple M1 (8GB) run Ornith 1.0 9B?

No. Ornith 1.0 9B needs ~7.1 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Apple M1 (8GB) only has ~5.5 GB usable.

How much memory does Ornith 1.0 9B need?

Apple M1 (8GB) does not have enough memory. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~5.6 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~7.1 GB at a 4k context.

What is the best tool to run Ornith 1.0 9B on macOS?

LM Studio for a simple setup; mlx-lm for the most speed. vLLM is NOT a Mac tool, it is a CUDA/Linux serving engine. Unified memory is not a fixed VRAM slice; ~70% is usable for weights.

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Markdown

[![Ornith 1.0 9B on Apple M1 (8GB)](https://localmodel.run/badge/ornith-1.0-9b/apple-m1-8gb.svg)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/ornith-1.0-9b/apple-m1-8gb)

Sources

Weights are measured from GGUF files; KV cache and overhead are computed, so totals can vary ~15% with context and runtime. Any tok/s is a bandwidth estimate. See methodology.